I don't like these books

This is a long one. Almost an essay, even. But I have to vent a little.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

I've mentioned it earlier, but it is a problem that still affects me. Mentioning my opinion causes people to look at me like I just crucified their savior. Uttering the statement causes eruptions of arguments on my ignorance, or how I'm not reading it right. But I can't pretend to believe everyone else's opinions are true anymore.

I can't stand The Lord of the Rings books.

Right now, someone is reading this and thinking of ways to hurt me. They want to tear me in half and hurl my body into the fires of Mt. Doom (or Orodruin as mentioned in the books). But I stand by my opinion. And I don't stand alone.

"Why I Don't Like Fellowship of the Ring," "The Deadman," and A Hasty Explanation

I should be reading for school. Or trying to sleep for school. But I can't. I'm listening to some Lord of the Rings music to put me in the mood to finally finish that damn trilogy of books once and for all (I kind of just stopped in the second half of two towers. I guess I was annoyed that the book went from pages of battles and a ton of characters to just Sam, Frodo, and Gollum. I think my brain screamed "Think of the amount you just read, now imagine it with only the hobbits!" and I fled in terror only to finally return today). But that's not what this post is about. This post is about my newest idea. I will tell the basic idea below and then follow it with a disclaimer, because I know that one or two people might say "WHAT A MINUTE YOU DICK YOU STOLE THIS IDEA FROM--" And believe me, I know that this can be said because I realized it after I started working on it.

Books and Personal Libraries

Heyo.

It's been a while. I was going to do another cooking post, but when I went to get the potatoes, they were nasty looking. I was shocked that they were dead after only 2 weeks of rotting in the floor of the pantry. Oh well. Will get more potatoes soon.

I've been wondering something for a while that I want to ask.

For those of you with eReaders, do you still buy normal books? Paperbacks, Hardcovers, etc? Do you buy digital formats of books you already own?

Personally, I do. I've been slowly building a digital library that mirrors my physical one. Why? Because of the shelves. I want to have shelves FULL of books. I want people to see that I read, and what I've read. I want to be able to lend a copy of a book to a friend and still be able to read it. I want to have a house someday that has a full wall of nothing but books. And then, another. Until it's a room.

If anything, I am more inclined to keep up this current trend of buying books I own because of what happened with Borders this week. It got me thinking: What if Barnes and Noble went under some day? Sure, I could buy from Amazon and strip the DRM out of their books for use on my device, but what about the opposite? If my nook finally dies, I lose a LOT of digital books forever (note: make a backup of those books right now). I guess that's the risk of tying in with a specific company. If they go under, they can take my library with them.

So yeah. What about you? How do you feel about owning 2 copies of the same books?

Missing Posts

Did some cleaning up. Took out the gaming stuff, because I just didn't care enough to keep going. Video game goals just aren't any fun anymore. Going to focus more on writing and cooking instead. So, no, you're not insane. I did delete some posts.

Story Ideas: Dreamer and Fantasy War

New Idea for a story:

A character dreams he is other people. Things he does in dreams actually happen the way he dreams them. Character is travelling in time with his dreams and affecting his future. It's like Quantum Leap. Wait. Shit. It is Quantum Leap. It became obvious as I wrote it out. Nevermind.


Other Idea:

Magic weapons that create powerful suits of armor, making wielders powerful tools of war. If weapon is dropped, however, the armor vanishes and they become unprotected.



The second one sounds good, I think.

End of Semester Plans

My last week of school technically begins next Monday (theoretically). As a result, I'm spending all weekend confined to my apartment, churning out as many papers as possible until I'm either finished, or my head explodes. My phone will be off. Chat programs will be off. TV will not be turned on at all. Not even for meals. Meals will be spent in front of the computer. I have pitchers of tea and Kool-aid already made and some light snacks. I will be working almost non-stop, taking small breaks once an hour, until I am done, no matter how many days it takes. No going out. No drinking. No quick trips to the store. Nothing. I will be on full lock-down.

"But why would you have to kill yourself to do all of this? There's no way that any teacher assigned so much work that you'll need all weekend to do it?" Well, yes and no. A teacher CAN assign an absurd amount of work... over the course of a semester. I'm essentially doing a full semester's worth of writing (not from scratch, but a lot of things need to be redone, edited, revised, etc.) As to the why? Because I've spent almost four months dealing with these things, sitting in the library and going over pages and pages of articles and essays and research and notes and trying to find verification and collaboration on facts and etc.... I've stared at blank pages for hours on end. I've sat down to work at home, only to have lost five hours messing with my music collection (damn you, ADD). All the time I spent doing nothing with these papers is time I could have spent doing something fun with ANYTHING ELSE. So, I'm throwing the gauntlet down. I have a bottle of Aspirin, plenty of refreshment, and an emergency caffeine boost in the fridge. It's time to get this over with. I want as much time as possible between the semesters to make up for all of the time spent staring at a blinking cursor for hours on end.

Speaking of, this isn't a post about my nightmare of schoolwork. This is about what I'm going to do AFTER I'm done. On my other monitor, I will have a list of everything I'm going to do when I'm finished with the semester as motivation. It's like clipping a picture of your vacation destination on your monitor at work to remind you what you're working for. Some of these will make no sense. Others will make perfect sense. Without further ado, here is what I'm going to do after I'm done with school.

• Finish the following games I started this semester
• Castlevania (PS3)
• 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
• Alan Wake (360)
• Dragon Quest IX (DS)
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (360)
• Start and finish the following games that I bought this semester
• Dead Space (PS3)
• Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3)
• Play every numbered Final Fantasy game (except for the online ones) in reverse order, starting with 13.
• Possibly make a "Let's Play" out of one of the earlier ones. May have a vote to decide (might include Mystic Quest in the poll.
• Replay the following games
• Bayonetta
• Write a few short stories to submit to St. Ed's writing journal.
• Work on Maelstrom
• Read as many books on my "to-read' list as possible.
• Watch the following TV Shows
• Walking Dead (Season 1)
• Dexter (Season 5)
• Boardwalk Empire (Season 1)
• The Wire (Seasons 2-5)
• Battlestar Galactica (at least season 2)
• Doctor Who (finish rewatching season 2 and 3)
• Tochwood: Children of Earth
• Watch the following movies
• Scott Pilgrim
• Iron Man 2
• Zombieland
• As much as possible on my netflix queue
• Cancel Netflix Discs, move to streaming only
• Start walking every day again
• Clean the apartment (should do this first)
• De-stink the aparment (Where is that smell coming from?!)
• Get to 85 in WoW with two characters
• Get auxiliary cable hooked up to Tahoe stereo
• Fix the satellite radio that stopped working
• Try to have at least one date (low priority)

Wow. I'm such a damn nerd. I really should move these.

(UPDATE 1 - December 23, 2010: Marked off finished and played games. Got the auxiliary cable working in Tahoe, but somehow screwed up the satellite radio. Oh well. Removed Harry Potter, because I won't get around to seeing it until it hits DVD most likely).

End of Semester To-Do list (or, I'm going to spend 3 weeks playing video games)

My last week of school technically begins next Monday (theoretically). As a result, I'm spending all weekend confined to my apartment, churning out as many papers as possible until I'm either finished, or my head explodes. My phone will be off. Chat programs will be off. TV will not be turned on at all. Not even for meals. Meals will be spent in front of the computer. I have pitchers of tea and Kool-aid already made and some light snacks. I will be working almost non-stop, taking small breaks once an hour, until I am done, no matter how many days it takes. No going out. No drinking. No quick trips to the store. Nothing. I will be on full lock-down.

"But why would you have to kill yourself to do all of this? There's no way that any teacher assigned so much work that you'll need all weekend to do it?" Well, yes and no. A teacher CAN assign an absurd amount of work... over the course of a semester. I'm essentially doing a full semester's worth of writing (not from scratch, but a lot of things need to be redone, edited, revised, etc.) As to the why? Because I've spent almost four months dealing with these things, sitting in the library and going over pages and pages of articles and essays and research and notes and trying to find verification and collaboration on facts and etc.... I've stared at blank pages for hours on end. I've sat down to work at home, only to have lost five hours messing with my music collection (damn you, ADD). All the time I spent doing nothing with these papers is time I could have spent doing something fun with ANYTHING ELSE. So, I'm throwing the gauntlet down. I have a bottle of Aspirin, plenty of refreshment, and an emergency caffeine boost in the fridge. It's time to get this over with. I want as much time as possible between the semesters to make up for all of the time spent staring at a blinking cursor for hours on end.

Speaking of, this isn't a post about my nightmare of schoolwork. This is about what I'm going to do AFTER I'm done. On my other monitor, I will have a list of everything I'm going to do when I'm finished with the semester as motivation. It's like clipping a picture of your vacation destination on your monitor at work to remind you what you're working for. Some of these will make no sense. Others will make perfect sense. Without further ado, here is what I'm going to do after I'm done with school.

• Finish the following games I started this semester
• Castlevania (PS3)
• 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
• Alan Wake (360)
• Dragon Quest IX (DS)
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (360)
• Darksiders
• Start and finish the following games that I bought this semester
• Dead Space (PS3)
• Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3)
• Play every numbered Final Fantasy game (except for the online ones) in reverse order, starting with 13.
• Possibly make a "Let's Play" out of one of the earlier ones. May have a vote to decide (might include Mystic Quest in the poll.
• Replay the following games
• Bayonetta
• Write a few short stories to submit to St. Ed's writing journal.
• Work on Maelstrom
• Read as many books on my "to-read' list as possible.
• Watch the following TV Shows
• Walking Dead (Season 1)
• Dexter (Season 5)
• Boardwalk Empire (Season 1)
• The Wire (Seasons 2-5)
• Battlestar Galactica (at least season 2)
• Doctor Who (finish rewatching season 2 and 3)
• Tochwood: Children of Earth
• Last Exile
• Black Lagoon
• Watch the following movies
• Scott Pilgrim
• Iron Man 2
• Zombieland
• As much as possible on my netflix queue
• Cancel Netflix Discs, move to streaming only
• Start walking every day again
• Clean the apartment (should do this first)
• De-stink the aparment (Where is that smell coming from?!)
• Get to 85 in WoW with two characters
• Get auxiliary cable hooked up to Tahoe stereo
• Try to have at least one date (low priority)
• Go see Harry Potter

Wow. I'm such a damn nerd. I really should move the games to the bottom of the list... but I know myself too well.

And with that, good night. I will see everyone in a few days.